UPDATE: NTSB Report Fails To State Cause For Fatal Crash

A preliminary federal report on a Kansas plane crash that killed a traveling California pastor and his pilot does not conclude what caused the aircraft to plummet to the ground 10 minutes after take-off.

The National Transportation Safety Board report released this week did note that pilots in the area at the time of the Oct. 18 crash indicated there was light to moderate icing conditions above 6,000 feet.

The 1975 Cessna Citation was carrying 72-year-old Ed Dufresne (doo-FRAYN’) and his pilot, 49-year-old Mitchell Morgan, to a speaking engagement in Texas when it suddenly went into a nosedive and crashed near Derby.

The report says the flight left Mid-Continent airport in Wichita at 10:07 a.m. and went down at 10:17 a.m., destroying the plane on impact.

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Authorities say a traveling California minister and his pilot are dead after a small-Texas bound plane crashed soon after taking off from a Kansas airport.

He says witnesses reported seeing debris falling from the twin-engine Cessna before it crashed around 10:15 a.m. Friday in a field about 20 miles southeast of Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro says the plane was bound for New Braunfels, Texas. According to the itinerary on his website, Dufresne spoke Thursday night at a Wichita church and was scheduled to speak at a Schertz, Texas church Friday night.

Dufresne ran the World Harvest Church in Murrieta, about 80 miles southeast of Los Angeles, California.

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Authorities say two men are dead after a small airplane crashed shortly after takeoff from Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport.

Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter says witnesses reported seeing a wing and other debris falling from the twin-engine Cessna before it crashed and burned around 10:15 a.m. Friday in a field southeast of Derby.

The two men were the only people on board. Their names were not immediately released.

A woman who answered the phone at Dufresne’s World Harvest Church in Murrieta, Calif., said there was no information available yet.

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by Jerry Sherwood

There are no survivors of a plane crash southeast of Derby, Friday morning. Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter says 911 received calls about the crash, north and east of 95th street South and Webb Road around 10:15 a.m.

“What we believe right now is that there was pieces of the plane falling off, according to witnesses, and we are locating those pieces of the plane,” said Sheriff Easter.

Sheriff Easter says the plane was completely destroyed and they were not able to determine on the scene what type of plane it was nor how many people were on board.

The NTSB and FAA have been called in to investigate the cause of the crash.